


13 steps to get captured

by RhysiesPeices



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Borderlands AU, Handsome Jack - Freeform, Hansome jack comes back, Katagawa - Freeform, M/M, Maliwan, Maliwan wins, Possessive katagawa, Rhys Strongfork, Rhysgawa, rhack - Freeform, rhys is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:14:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24147235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhysiesPeices/pseuds/RhysiesPeices
Summary: Maliwan has taken over atlas and quickly invades their HQ, but when Rhys flees Katagawa will get some help from an unlikely allie to find him. Meanwhile Rhys will have to find a place to hide and cope with the loss of his company and friends.
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Katagawa Jr./Rhys (Borderlands), Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands), Katagawa Jr./Rhys (Borderlands)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If any of you get the reference I’m gonna be so happy and just a little concerned.

As the small bits of rubble stood on Promethea, the last bits of the atlas CEO’s hope were snuffed out. The fight was over and Maliwan won. Katagawa had won. Zer0 was nowhere to be seen and Lorelei was going to most likely be killed. Atlas’s last employees were given the option to either join Maliwan or be executed. If this was the beginning of the end for Rhys he didn’t want to see the end. Vaughn and the crimson raiders had called him to say goodbye to him, knowing that this would be the last time they would have the chance to talk to him. His loud footfalls echoed through the small escape tunnel he had built for any occasion like this.

When Rhys left Promethea's downtown he knew the clock was ticking till Katagawa found him. The one place he knew katagawa wouldn’t look was on his mind, pandora. He made his way to the nearest fast travel station and set course to hollow point. The one place where he was 90% sure he would be safe, the other 10% was just in case Fiona tried to kill him. He plugged in the coordinates and soon appeared there, just like planned.

In less than an hour after getting there he had a place to stay to lay low for a while. Fiona was surprisingly open to the idea of him staying there for a while. The two reconnected quickly, her filling him in about what happened after he left and him telling her the trouble he found himself in. Only after he retired to the place he would call home for a while did he realize the severity of him being here, the possibility katagawa could at any moment show up at hollow point if he took even one wrong step, or the fact that now if he was found it wouldn’t just be his life on the line. As he lied down to sleep the thoughts swelled in his head, taking him into an uneasy sleep.

———

To say katagawa was furious was an understatement. Pacing around in his office he was seething, he had Rhys in his grasp and he fell right through his fingers. Why couldn’t rhys see that he was now his? The two had a unique relationship in his eyes, katagawa would go after rhys and rhys would try to deny himself katagawa by pushing him away, but he thought both of them knew how this would end. He would find rhys one way or another. If it meant that there would be people to go through he would plow them down himself to get to rhys. As katagawa sat down at his desk, he had a false realization hit him. Of course rhys was playing a game with him. Cat and mouse if you will.

A small smirk crept onto his lips, he would entertain Rhys with the game for a while. Even if it was just a game to him he would make sure to thoroughly enjoy it. make sure rhys thought he was winning and then show him who was in control, but the games could wait, he first had to figure out what happened to him and where he went. Katagawa typed up the email to his contacts, making sure to tell them to keep hidden until he told them to. Games were no fun if the moment you were close to winning the prize got farther away. 

As he hit send he sighed. This was going to be fun. 

———

That night Rhys got not nearly enough sleep, the thoughts and fears he had keeping him awake. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Rhys tried to calm himself down. If he played his cards right and just kept low and didn’t draw any attention to himself he could get atlas back somehow. His hopes were quickly fading though, and he only wished that he could turn back time and somehow win. Anything was better than losing to katagawa, at least with Jack he knew that he would be put out of his misery. Thinking for a second he realized that he could use jack, all he needed to do was make sure he was unable to harm him. 

Gently taking off his arm he mentally prepared himself, if anything bad happened this time he couldn’t just get a new eye or get rid of him. He would be stuck. As his hand traveled into his pocket he panicked, where was jack? He looked around and then it hit him. Jack was at his desk at atlas hq, along with his arm charger. Taking a few deep breaths he sat down, and tried to calm himself down. At most his arm had a week and if he was correct his eye would work no matter what. 

He wasn’t worried about his arm but Jack. If Katagawa helped jack he would not only be found out fairly quickly but he knew that the two of them would have a field day with him. Jack currently had one of the weirdest grudges for him but jack was a monster by himself. Katagawa was also a monster but jack was different. At least katagawa was predictable, jack was not. He could fluctuate between being a really cool guy to being a very sadistic less cool guy. He was knocked out of his thinking as he got. A small pop up in his eye about an email. He looked at his email quickly and found one from an unknown sender, opening it was something he was hesitant about currently but he did anyways. 

Reading it he was relieved, it was Lorelei. She was apparently at an unknown location and had a few refugees with her, but she was safe. He replied and said that he was ecstatic to hear that, he valued her as a friend and that as soon as he could he would come get her and let her and the refugees stay where he was. Without thinking twice he hit sent and awaited her reply. Smiling he closed the email. His friends were safe, and that was all that mattered to him. At least for what he could tell they were safe. 

He was wrong


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda long? Idk, but i got my first comment yesterday! Please enjoy this chapter!

To say Katagawa was a powerful man was an understatement, with Atlas now gone he was the powerful man. Atlas was a rival yes but the man running it was a whole other story for him, Rhys was not his company. Rhys was something much more than atlas, katagawa always saw him as something to be won. A reward for when he would finally get everything he wanted. Once he had Rhys he could finally have the luxury of the life he wanted. The only problem now was finding Rhys. 

Rhys was never good at hiding, he was naturally the person people looked at even if he didn’t want it. Where Rhys was truly good at was covering his tracks, when he tried he could make it look like no one had ever been there before. Thankfully for katagawa he knew Rhys well enough to know he would have overlooked trying to cover up while escaping. All katagawa had to do is figure out where he went after leaving atlas. 

Katagawa had pieces together where he had left the building and had sent trackers to figure out the path he went after leaving the building but he only trusted himself to find how he left. As he walked around Rhys office, gliding his hands along the edge of his desk. Looking down at the desk he took note of what was on it, a photo of him with a man with glasses, a pen holder, a few folders, his coffee mug from when he left, and his keys. Katagawa took his keys from the desk, this would come in handy down the line and would make getting into Rhys’s home a hell of a lot easier. 

His desk was full of so many things, Katagawa had to keep himself from being disappointed in the lack of organizational skills of Rhys. As he went through Rhys’s desk he pocketed something’s, such as his echo and his small arm charger. When he finished up looking through to desk he paused, seeing a small thin line of metal connected to something round and bright blue. Picking it up he examined it, an old echo eye that still worked. 

‘Why would Rhys keep this junk’ Katagawa thought. He could possibly transfer what was in his eye to a useable file to get some more info, although it would be pretty nice to just keep it as a memento of what Rhys used to be. Keep it as a reminder to Rhys about everything he just lost and how easily it was taken. It would be a sadistic thing to do to him, but the more katagawa thought about it the more he liked to idea. Katagawa would definitely use this.

———

Something was wrong in the following weeks of the loss of Atlas, Rhys couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that lingered in himself. His fear could be felt in the mostly empty home he had been staying resident at. Fiona and Sasha had visited a lot while he was there, making sure that he had food and was at least alive. Although he was thankful for the company that they gave he was a bit annoyed at them babying him, it was only because his arm had run out of charge and he now had only one arm to use. 

When he was not moping around his house he was either helping the others with small tasks or planning his revenge on Katagawa, the man who had destroyed everything for Rhys. It was simple, play along with Katagawa and when the time was right he would strike. There was one problem with the plan though. Time. He couldn’t wait forever to attack but he couldn’t do anything to quickly. As Jack once taught him, to win the game you have to play it, and trust was your best friend. 

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Fiona waved a hand in front of his face, making him flinch. Her smirk grew at that as she told him “hey airhead, Dinners ready. Get ready.” 

“Jesus Fiona I’m coming, just give me a minute!” He said looking up at her with a small smile.

“Okay, okay, got it Rhys!” She replied laughing a little.

As he got up and followed her the two talked, Fiona being her normal cocky self and Rhys being Rhys. It was weird for him to be talked to like how Fiona talked, but he liked it. When people talked to Rhys it was polite and professional, but he knew that they were only trying to be nice to get him to give them something. There were exceptions to this, Lorelei, Vaughn, and Zer0 but he liked it when they talked to him. They were his friends and they knew that, the one person who he didn’t like talking to him like a friend was Katagawa. Every time Katagawa spoke to him all he could see was a deranged and sadistic psychopath. All he could think about with Katagawa was how similar he sounded to Jack, and it scared him shitless.

Broken out of thought again he fell to the ground, looking up he saw an unfamiliar lady. She was short and plump, with long dark hair to her waist. She had a loose fitting outfit with knee high boots, like some kind of traveler. The sight of travelers was not odd in hollow point but something about her just rubbed Rhys the wrong way. He got up and dusted himself off, quickly apologizing to her. She gave no response and quickly walked away, muttering something that he didn’t quite hear. 

“Rhys! Do i have to drag you to dinner!” Fiona said grading his wrist and pulling him along.  
———

Katagawa was ecstatic in the moment, he had gotten news of a sighting of Rhys and he had gotten a data drive full of what was in Rhys’ eye. As soon as he got the data drive he plugged it into his computer to see what was on it, starting at the last uncorrupted file from 3 years ago. He was a little surprised to see that Rhys was in some sort of desert, was that pandora? Listening intently he could hear Rhys talking to someone named Vaughn. It was a little boring until he started hearing a third voice, it sounded really familiar but he couldn’t seem to remember it. It kept talking on and on and got annoying quickly. Only when Rhys turned back to look at him did he realise who it was. Handsome Fucking Jack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a while but hope you enjoyed this! Katagawa’s kind of creepy but thats just katagawa!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two egotistical maniacs talk to each other while Rhys loses his mind and his friends

Handsome fucking Jack was in Rhys’ head? Katagawa couldn’t believe it, he sat in his chair bewildered. Was this how Rhys got that far with atlas? Was Handsome Jack helping him? All of these questions were interrupted by someone snapping.

“Kiddo you good?” Oh my god Handsome Jack in his computer, quickly katagawa composed himself.

“What virus are you? Why are you in Rhys’ echo eye?” Katagawa asked looking at Jack on his screen. This was way to much for one day, he had to know what the hell happened. How did his Rhys have someone so vile as Handsome Jack in his Echo eye, the thought of his poor Rhys having to deal with him all day was like torture. 

“Lots of questions, look I got some questions too, like what the hell you did to Rhys to have me come back. Not that I mind, I mean anything other than being stuck in his eye is good with me, but still kinda weird.” It was a bit weird for the both of them to actually speak to each other. Katagawa and everyone ever knew who Handsome Jack was, the Hyperion CEO that woke the warrior and almost destroyed the Crimson Raiders. Meanwhile Jack had no idea who the hell this guy was, the last thing he remembered was Rhys pulling out his echo eye and then darkness.

“It’s none of your concern, now answer my questions.” Katagawa demanded, his words coming out a bit hesitant. To any trained ear it was clear that Katagawa was still in shock from this. Had jack always been in Rhys’ head? Was that how he made it far in the corporate world? All these thoughts swam in Katagawa’s head as he stared at the computer.

This was going to be an interesting day.

———————

The more contact Rhys had with people outside of hollow point, he knew the more at risk he was of being found. However He would risk that if it meant he could have contact with Lorelei and Zer0. The two people he trusted the most were 3 planets away from him but against his better judgment he continued contact with them. With every email his worry for them grew. According to what was sent, Lorelei was currently hiding away with the refugees she was helping, and Zer0 is in Sanctuary. 

He was the only friend he had on pandora. It was a bit sad to think about but after what happened with the vault of the traveler but afterwards they didn’t speak much at all. The only people he kept in contact with afterwards were Zer0 and Vaughn. Vaughn. Oh shit he completely forgot about Vaughn! 

He hadn’t seen Vaughn in about a year or two, he wondered if he still looked like he did the last time they met up. The more he thought of it the more he realized that if he actually went and stayed with Vaughn it was less likely he was to be found. It was genius, no one would expect the CEO of Atlas to be hiding with a bandit clan leader. All Rhys had to do was tell the others where he was going and that he would be okay and then the others wouldn’t question it. He sent Vaughn a message and awaited a reply, he started to think of what to tell the others.

‘Hey just gonna leave and hope I can come back if I survive this mess’ was too on the nose. He tried to think of another way to put it, but everything else sounded like he was selling them out to save his own ass. In the middle of thought his echo went off from Lorelei. He answered the call, but before he could open his mouth he heard Lorelei yell out.

“Rhys! Maliwan found us- Argh! I might not make it but you’ve been one hell of a boss to work for, and the bloody best CEO I’m ever seen…” 

“Lorelei I need you to make it out of there I swear if- When you get out of there I am going to get you to somewhere that Maliwan can’t find you. Just get out of there Lorelei!” Rhys said, panicked. 

“Hah, always the optimist Rhys. Be sure to say hi to the others for me.” She said.

She said some other words but Rhys couldn’t hear them over the ringing in his ears, when the ringing stopped he heard a loud bang and the call ending. Lorelei was dead. Rhys’ first friend on Promethea was gone because of some stupid power hungry Maliwan dickhead that couldn’t just leave him alone. This was his fault though, if he had just signed Atlas over in the first place and gone along with Katagawa this wouldn’t have happened. He heard sniffing, was that him? Was he crying? He hesitantly touched his face and felt the hot wet tears. He fell to the floor as sobs racked his body, the thoughts that this was his fault filled his head. 

He continued crying for about an hour when his Echo went off, he picked it up and saw the message from Vaughn.

‘Here’s my coordinates, come over anytime. I’ll be waiting’

——————

“So you mean to tell me that Rhys- The guy that has resurrected one of the most powerful companies back from you, Killed you after single handedly crashing the Helios space station.” Katagawa’s entire brain hurt from nearly an hour of what was essentially an entire books worth of events told to him by an AI. 

“Well yeah, you could sum it up to that I guess.” 

It was almost unbelievable to hear, He always thought of Rhys as kind of a timid thing with a sort of brave and rebellious streak. To hear everything he did made him sound like a total badass. Katagawa sat in silence for a minute, if he was to get Rhys after what he had just heard he would have to try a lot harder. 

“Say, why are you so interested in Rhys? I mean it’s a little creepy how far you went for him.” Jack asked.

It was a good question for Katagawa, why was he going for Rhys? 

“I don’t know, he’s just a very… Interesting thing. He’s smart, kind, pretty, and has this certain pull to him. He’s very enticing in many ways, but for some reason he’s determined to do the opposite of what I want.” Katagawa sighed and leaned back into his desk chair. “What about you? What interest do you have in him after what happened between you two?”

“Well he’s a total dumb ass and I want to strangle him, but I must say, he does have some redeeming traits that stop me from doing that. He’s got some nice legs, he looks good in about anything, not to mention he has that certain jenesequa to him that makes him so damn good to watch. He’s everything I’m not, which is good or bad depending on how you see it.” “Well I guess we have something similar between us now.” There was a long pause between the two of them. It was like they were both thinking as one, as they looked at each other. It wasn’t long before katagawa spoke up. “Let’s make a deal, I’ll make you a body so you aren’t confined to only being an AI, and when we do that you will help me get Rhys.” Jack looked at Katagawa for a moment, studying him to see for anything suspicious. He grinned at Katagawa and smugly said “Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who left comments on the last chapter! It makes me so happy to see people enjoy my work, and it helps me write even when I’m having hard times with it. Also next chapter gets pretty spicy


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys leaves for another place to hide. Katagawa and jack have a small talk.

It was a quarter past midnight and somehow hollow point was still buzzing with life. It took Rhys an eternity to reach a catch-a-ride station. As he walked through the small crowd of people he bumped into so many people, he recognized one of them from earlier but didn’t think too much of it. He needed to leave this place until he knew he was safe, and if that meant ditching his friends without notifying them then so be it. When he finally got to the station he quickly spawned in a cyclone, which reminded him of what he left behind. 

He left a planet to those Maliwan dick heads and COV freaks. One could only imagine the horrors of what would happen to Promethea under their control, the vault would be opened, everything would be vandalized or destroyed, and so many people would die in the process. This was his fault. Everything was his fault, and there wasn’t much he could do about it now. All he could do currently was wait until he could rebuild when things mellowed out. 

As he rode to Vaughn he felt a pit form in his stomach, like something was gonna go horribly wrong. The feeling followed all the way to Vaughn’s place. Although he told himself that he was being irrational a small part of him knew that he was going to be right.

————

Jack had no frame of reference when it came to being in any body their than his own. As he looked at his new body in the mirror he couldn’t help but feel a little creeped out. Everything was the same, down to the scars and small freckles littered on his body. They even gave him the vault scar, which he was pissed about, but it was very impressive. As he put on the mask he was given that matched the rest of his pre-death body, he tested the joints. He banged his hand on the table near him and grinned.

“Damn kiddo, you outdid yourself. If I wasn’t so happy to have my body back I’d call you a creep for how much effort it would have taken to get everything the way it is.” Jack turned to Katagawa and walked towards him.

“Maliwan takes it’s deals with their partners seriously, but now it’s time to uphold your end of the deal.” 

“Yeah yeah, all we have to do is find out where his friend Vaughn is. If we get him and use him as bait we can get him.” Jack said nonchalantly.

“Any idea of where this ‘Vaughn’ person would be?”

“If I’m not mistaken,which I am, he’s on Pandora.” 

This was going to be easier than they thought, if he was on Pandora then there’s few places that are safe for anyone not in the COV or their allies. Meaning that they just narrowed down the search to about a quarter of a planet.

“Is there any chance you might want to accompany me in getting this Vaughn you speak of?” Katagawa said, growing a devilish smile.

Jack snickered and grabbed Katagawa’s shoulder “Don’t have to ask me twice”

————

Arriving at Rolands rest wasn’t easy, it was a long drive but it would be worth it if he didn’t harm anyone in his attempt to evade being possibly murdered by Katagawa. Getting out of his cyclone he looked around the camp. There were bandit camps around much to his displeasure but no one messed with this place unless they had a death wish.

“Rhys! Bro it’s been forever!” Someone said as they hugged him and lifted him off the ground. 

He looked down and grinned, knowing that cheeky smile from anywhere.

“Vaughn! Wow you look so different, loving the new look though.” Rhys said smiling down at Vaughn.

Vaughn put Rhys down and the two talked for hours. Rhys was introduced to people and shown around, the place had an odd structure but it was home for now. There were no crazed multi-billionaires around trying to kill him which made the entire place seem 10 times better than it was. Vaughn and Rhys talked until dark, sitting on the tower behind the statue of Roland. 

“ Hey bro, can I ask a weird question?” Vaughn asked

“Yeah bro.”

“Why does Katagawa want to kill you or whatever?”

Rhys paused for a moment, why did Katagawa want him?was it for revenge? Was it because he was a rival that could just resurrect atlas again? It was uncertain to him, which was worrisome to no extent. He took a deep breath before sighing and looking at Vaughn.

“I have no idea.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys is panicky, katagawa and jack have a lot of homoerotic tension, and some important things get told to people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmao imagine updating regularly, anyways after some nasty shenanigans that involved getting involuntarily hospitalized for 2 weeks and getting sent to a residential for a week and a half i have another chapter! This is kind of long but that okay because some reflection gets done by rhys and also set up for the next chapter is done! Big boy stuff going to happen and that gonna be a pain to write!!

Katagawa walked into his office, seeing Jack looking over papers. His pace slowed as he made his way to Jack. He was wearing a pair of reading glasses, framing his face in a way that made him look more sophisticated. The large window behind him made the light hitting him more fitting with the rest of the yellow and navy blue room. Putting his gloved hand on Jack’s shoulder there was a small moment of silence before Jack said “Any more leads with the spies?”

“Not that I know of, we have an area we’ve narrowed down to where he is. Weird place called The Devil’s Razor.” 

Jack took off his glasses and leaned into Katagawa’s hand. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“God why is he so fucking stupid.” Jack grumbled looking up at Katagawa.

“With the idiotic choices he’s made so far I’m surprised he managed to take Helios down, not to mention run Atlas.” 

“He was able to take down Helios because I thought his iq was higher than what it actually was. Idiot almost airlocked himself trying to take a space station down” jack said chuckling at the end.

“You think that was bad? He took out my moon base with vault hunters, he hacked a pleasure ball just to see what was going on. He couldn’t even hack an attack bot!” Katagawa said, both of the men laughed at that.

It was oddly peaceful for the two. Their weird crush on Rhys was a bonding point, like some sort of weird hobby between them.

—————

Rhys woke up in a cold sweat. His body shot up and his arm reached for his neck, checking for anyone else’s hand there. Quickly scanning the room he sighed, getting up and walking to his arm. It was nearly dead, great. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. 

He would normally blame it on the fact his anxiety meds were left at his apartment, but tonight felt different. Looking over at Vaughn sleeping soundly, he smiled a bit. Of course Vaughn would be asleep while Rhys was on the verge of panicking.

Walking out of their small bunk he sat on the ledge above the town's catch-a-ride. It was silent right then. It was nice to think that even in a wasteland like pandora it could be as silent as his home planet. As much as Rhys enjoyed Promethea, the planet was alive every moment of the day. There was always someone speeding down the street or someone was yelling out for Tyreen Calypso. 

Promethea. Rhys’ home. He abandoned it so he could save himself. He left Lorelei, he left zero, he left everyone there. The sound of Lorelei’s last moments filled his head and his eyes started to water. How could he have just left everyone to deal with his mess? It wasn’t fair to leave the planet to be ruled underneath that maliwan tyrant. 

He only realised he was crying once a tear dropped on his hand. Quickly whipping them off his face he jumped down to the catch a ride station, a night ride might help clear his mind. Spawning the cyclone he got in. He quietly left the station, not knowing what to come.

—————

Katagawa and Jack laughed like always, playfully hitting each other with each joke. It was all fine and dandy until Katagawa’s personal assistant burst in.

“We found him.” He said quickly, panting from running here as fast as he could.

They sat in silence for a moment before Jack asked coldly “Where is he?”

“He’s residing in Roland’s Rest, a small town near some COV bases.”

With that the two stood up, Katagawa said “Get a ship ready, and make sure to bring a small army with.”

The PA left the room, leaving them alone again.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this one was way to short, I’m not used to writing this stuff. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! There will be a lot more updates! - Rhys (tragic name for writing this stuff)


End file.
